Opiates passing alcohol as top addiction in Monroe

Heroin and prescription drug abuse are surpassing alcoholism as the top addiction problem in Monroe County, treatment program officials report.

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By DAVID PIERCE

poconorecord.com

By DAVID PIERCE

Posted Nov. 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By DAVID PIERCE
Posted Nov. 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Heroin and prescription drug abuse are surpassing alcoholism as the top addiction problem in Monroe County, treatment program officials report.

"Opiates" — including illicit drugs and prescription pain-killers — accounted for nearly 41 percent of Monroe County's outpatient treatment cases in 2010-11, according to a recent report by the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission. This compares to about 39 percent being treated for alcoholism.

For the year ending June 30, 2012, the numbers remained roughly the same, with a slightly higher incidence of alcoholism, says Dr. Jamie Drake of the tri-county agency. Since July 1, about 52 percent of Monroe Catholic Social Services' cases are for opiates, as are 47 percent of Northwest Human Services cases here.

Catholic Social Services and Northwest contract with the Drug and Alcohol agency to provide local outpatient treatment.

The rising local opiates trend started around 2006, Drake said. Younger addicts are often attracted by cheap $10 bags of heroin as their introduction.

"I think with them it's more of what they can get a hold of," Drake said. "Naturally, they're going to build up that tolerance" and demand increasing doses of heroin to feed their addiction and achieve the same high.

Addicts ages 35 to 50 are more likely to be prescribed painkillers like Percocet or Oxycontin, only to find themselves addicted to their meds.

"They are very effective for pain," Drake said. "People don't want to live with pain."

About 160 Monroe County residents were enrolled in opiate addiction outpatient treatment last year. A 10 percent state budget cut in Medical Assistance this year means less funding is available for substance abuse services for those who can't afford to pay for it in Monroe, Pike and Carbon counties.

The addiction often resembles flu-like symptoms such as sweating, nausea and body aches.

"Imagine the last time you had the flu," Drake said. "Then imagine feeling that way every day."

Outpatient treatment typically includes 12-step counseling, coping skills and providing methadone or Suboxone to help replace the cravings for opiates. Suboxone is a narcotic that at low doses blocks the urge to get high.

"It makes you feel like the opiate is still there," Drake said. "Therefore they don't want to use."

Addiction to prescription painkillers has been a constant problem in recent years, says Brian Allen, an educator in the Emergency Department at Pocono Medical Center.

When patients persistently show up in the ER asking for pill refills for back pain, doctors are tipped off to possible physical dependency.

"A lot are just coming in asking for another prescription to deal with their narcotic addiction," Allen said. "A lot of people don't realize they are addicted. It happens inadvertently sometimes."

Drug and alcohol abuse are usually intertwined, he said.

Some high school and college parties center around students raiding their parents and grandparents' medicine cabinets, with the pills indiscriminately dumped into a bowl for the taking.

"That's when it becomes really dangerous," Allen said.

Despite this, there are relatively few East Stroudsburg University students who come into the nearby ER with a drug problem, Allen said. Doctors often see freshmen, away from home for the first time, abusing alcohol or drugs during the first two weeks of school.

"Most of those are one-and-done," Allen said. "We usually don't see them as repeat offenders."

More than 51 percent of outpatient drug abuse cases handled in Carbon County during 2010-11 were for opiate addiction, compared to 27.4 percent for alcohol abuse. In Pike County, 42.5 of the outpatients were addicted to alcohol, compared to 33.7 percent abusing opiates.